zaterdag 29 augustus 2009

BEIRUT: On the surface, the Mediterranean coastal city of Beirut is an upmarket tourist destination, offering Arab tourists good weather, good food and good times, but beyond the tables heavy with food and the shining lights, Beirut’s greatest attraction is sex. Arab tourists flock in the thousands to Lebanon from Gulf countries every summer. More and more, Arab men seem to be attracted by the growing opportunities to engage in sex tourism.

Het wemelt van de berichten over deals tussen Mitchell en Netanyahu aangaande de nederzettingen en de vredesbesprekingen. De Amerikanen zouden Jeruzalem uitzonderen van een bouwstop, er zou een koppeling plaatsvinden tussen een bouwstop en sancties tegen Iran (The Guardian) en nog meer. Laura Rozen doet in Foreign Policy goed werk met wat waarschijnlijk een accurate voorstelling van zaken is. Ze citeert onder meer letterlijk de briefing van een State Department official: As you know, there have been several inaccurate reports throughout this period about the status and nature of our discussions with Israel and other parties, and any reports that we have come to an agreement are premature. We hope to conclude this phase of discussions soon, but we have not concluded it yet. Senator Mitchell just met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in London to continue these discussions.De bottom line is dat er nog gepraat wordt. Al het andere is onjuist. Zie voor het artikel hier.

donderdag 27 augustus 2009

The Palestinan National Council (PNC) has elected six new members of the PLO-Executive during an extraordinary session in Ramallah. Ma'an reported that the six were chosen during talks between the different factions. They are: Saeb Erakat (Fatah, well known from the negotations with Israel), Ahmed Qurei (Fatah, former prime minister), Salih Raafat (FIDA, the Ýasser Abd Rabbo split of the DFLP), Ahmad Majdalani (Palestinian People's Struggle Front PPSF, professor of philosofy at Bir Zeit, he takes the seat of Samir Ghoushe who died earlier this month), Hanna Amira (the communist Palestinian People's Party), and Ziad Abu Amr (former minister of Culture of the PA, former minister of Foreign Affairs in the short lived Haniyyeh government of national unity. He is an independent.

Abbas during talks with leaders of other factions.

The session of the PNC was the first since 1998, which at the time was held at the wishes of Israel that wanted the PLO-Charter to be altered. Mahmoud Abbas, who is president of the PLO, of the PA and of Fatah, called for the present meeting shortly after he had strengthened his position at the recently held congress of Fatah. Of the about 700 PNC-members no more than a 350 were able to attend. The meeting was sharply condemned by the parliamentary faction of Hamas, the Change and Reform bloc. In a statement it said that it - being representative of the Palestinian majority - no longer accepted the notion that the PLO was an umbrella organization of all Palestinian factions. The statement said that the meeting was held in spite of the agreement reached in Cairo in 2005, that stipulated that the PLO would not convene before it had been reformed, according to reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah. The bloc stressed that 'Abbas strives hard to control the PLO, and to find a nominal executive committee of his own making that would pave the way for him to go ahead with his plans that would finish off the Palestinian cause, the right of return, and to accept a demilitarized Palestinian quasi-state without Jerusalem'.

The Electronic Intifada features an article by the Gazan English literature professor and independent political analyst Haidar Eid in which he sharply criticezes the recent Fatah Congress. According to Eid The sixth congress of the Fatah movement, held in Bethlehem earlier this month, gave us a front row seat to the closing act of an important period of Palestinian nationalism.True, the conference was held on Palestinian soil, but, ironically, under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers. The failure of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah) to achieve any of its declared goals was symbolized in its holding the conference under occupation.

According to Eid that symbolizes ot only the demise of the ideals of the old Fatah but of Palestinian nationalism as a whole.The opening speech given by Fatah chairman Mahmoud Abbas was approved as the political statement of the conference. The speech itself was the manifestation of what Oslo, Taba, the Road Map and the Annapolis summit aimed at; namely, the transformation of the Palestinian cause from one of self-determination and liberation into a charity case to which the slogan "independence" is applied. Critical appraisal of the last 20 years since the convening of the fifth Fatah congress, or even the period since the disastrous Oslo accords were signed in 1993, was never on the agenda. Questioning the logic of Israel's tolerance of the conference was also a taboo.

Eid's article can be found here.
And here was my own reading of the Fatah Congress

Gary Sick, veteraan Irankenner nog uit de dagen van Jimmy Carter als president, schreef op zijn blog een prachtig stuk over de Iraanse showprocessen:Iran today is doing what all aging revolutionary regimes seem to do—transforming itself into the image of the very regime it displaced. Just as middle-aged men and women look in the mirror and are surprised to see their fathers and mothers looking back at them, revolutionaries are startled to see themselves inexorably turning into the tyrants they thought they had banished forever. To put it another way, “Revolutions revolve—360 degrees.” This aphorism, invented years ago by Charles Issawi, the late Egyptian-born Middle East historian at Columbia, captures nicely in four words the typical lifecycle of the great revolutions.In het stuk trekt Sick parallellen met showprocessen onder Stalin en de manier waarop andere revoluties ontspoorden en schrijft hij vervolgens:It is no stretch to suggest that a similar process is under way today in Iran. The simplest explanation for the “miscalculation” of crudely fixing the June 12 election—the day that is likely to become famous as 22 Khordad on the Iranian calendar—is that the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards were determined to prevent anything from coming in the way of their assertion of absolute power. The possibility of a win by Mir Hossein Mousavi (or even a near-win) would have undercut their claims to absolute authority at a time when they were confidently poised to seize full power. The subsequent unrest may well have surprised them, but it also provided the excuse for a purge of some of the leading reformers and their rivals. That is still underway.Lees het hele stuk hier.

The Palestinian Authority intends to bypass failing peace talks and establish its own de facto state within two years, Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said. Speaking on the eve of talks in London today between Binyamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown, his Israeli and British counterparts, Mr Fayyad said that the idea was to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. He told The Times in an interview: “After 16 years [of failed peace talks] why not change the discourse? “We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored. This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly.” He said that if a functioning de facto state existed — with or without Israeli co-operation — including competent security forces, functioning public services and a thriving economy, it would force Israel to put its cards on the table as to whether it was serious about ending the 42-year occupation of the West Bank. He hoped that this goal could be achieved by mid-2011. “It is empowering to even think that way,” said an animated Mr Fayyad, a respected economist. He has spent the past two years — since the Islamist group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force — wooing investors to the West Bank and building up professional security forces, trained under British and American supervision. He said that the days of mutual recriminations were over and that both sides must commit to the 2003 “road map” whereby Israel would implement a comprehensive settlement freeze and the Palestinians curb the activities of militant groups. “What is required is greater clarity and greater accountability,” he said, noting that the vastly improved Palestinian security forces showed his Palestinian Authority was holding up its end of the bargain. He said that it was time for the Israelis to do the same and rejected Mr Netanyahu’s attempts to secure a compromise on allowing settlement construction that is already under way to be continued.

De rector van de Ben Gurion universiteit, dr Rivka Carmi, veroordeelde Gordon heftig en vroeg hem ongeveer in zoveel woorden of hij maar wilde ophoepelen. De Jerusalem Post meldde dat ze Gordons meningen "destructive" vond en an "abuse [of] the freedom of speech prevailing in Israel and at BGU."We are shocked and outraged by [Gordon's] remarks, which are both irresponsible and morally reprehensible.This kind of Israel-bashing detracts from the wonderful work that is being done at BGU and at all Israeli universities," Carmi added. "Academics who entertain such resentment toward their country are welcome to consider another professional and personal home."

zaterdag 22 augustus 2009

Richard Silverstein who blogs at the Huffinton Post and his own blog, Tikun Olam, and who is a regular contributor to a lot of other publications like The Guardian or the daily Forward, had this to say on what happened to Tariq Ramadan:

Here I thought that only the Bush administration ham-handedly overreacted to the alleged threat of Muslim militantcy by denying Tariq Ramadan a visa to teach at Notre Dame. Now, a Dutch university and city have engaged in the same type of ludicrous conduct in firing Tariq Ramadan from a teaching job at the school and from a job helping the city to encourage the intergration of Muslim residents into communal life. Ramadan’s offense: he conducts a TV show about Islam on the Iran-backed Press TV. Apparently, in doing so Ramadan has somehow become an apologist for “mad mullahs” who stole the recent presidential election..

and

At least two people with divergent political views who I know and respect have been guests on Press TV: Dan Fleshler and Juan Cole. Does this mean that they too have drunk the Kool Aid and become raving defenders of the Iranian regime? C’mon. As I said above, this is ludicrous. If a Muslim scholar were to host a regular show on Voice of America does this mean that he would be an American stooge and defender of every outrage perpetrated by this country against Muslims?

Apparently, Rotterdam’s mayor is Muslim and I’m guessing that this is an attempt by his political opponents to embarrass him. In fact, this entire episode may be more about the mayor and Ramadan may only be a useful foil for the anti-Islamist right.

If he hasn’t already written about this, someone pick up the phone and tell Daniel Pipes that the Islamists have been vanquished at the dikes of the Zuider Zee just before their onslaught on all of European civilization. Thank God some [Christian] God-fearing souls were willing to stand up against Trojan Horses like Ramadan, who sweet talk their way into the salons of the effete liberal-class, thus dissolving their will to hold the breach against the Mohammedan horde.

It's nice to see that some people outside the Netherlands share the opinion of the small sane minority that is still left in this country. What I have to say to Richard is the following: I'm afraid that Rotterdam's muslim mayor was among the people who wanted to get rid of Ramadan. Why? I'd like to ask him one day. Maybe he took his integration one step too far?The second thing is about Daniel Pipes. Why inform him? He probably has heard the good news already from his Dutch twin, our own Pipes, who happens to be a professor in 'social cohesion, citizenship and multiculturality' (no less) at Leiden University by the name of Afshin Ellian. I think it was him who shouted woolf, as soon as he found out that Ramadan had this show on Press TV. Ellian and Pipes, two brothers in arms in the common jihad-watch to save our culture from (hidden)islamic threats.

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on. A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one's own nation.

It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.Het huidige Israel is volgens Gordon het best te beschrijven als:

...an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.

Maar Mubarak kwam met nog iets: During the White House press conference, Mubarak rejected the notion of a temporary Palestinian state. "We need to move to the final status solution and level," Mubarak told reporters as he sat with Obama in the Oval Office."I have contacted the Israelis and they said 'perhaps we can talk about a temporary solution,'" Mubarak said. "But I told them, No, I told them, forget about the temporary solution, forget about temporary borders," he said, referring to debate about the future shape of a Palestinian state.

Wat is dat voor iets, een 'tijdelijke staat'? Ahmed Qurei, de vroegere Palestijnse premier en toponderhandelaar die tijdens het recente Fatah-congres zijn zetel kwijtraakte, had het ook al over zoiets (zie mijn stuk over Fatah, hier: He hinted that this might have something to do with something only some insiders knew about: 'The current stage is hard and difficult and there were offers for a temporary state and a solution without the Right of Return and without Jerusalem and it seems there were people in the Palestinian arena who were ready to accept those offers,' he said. Also he put a big question mark on the election of four PA security leaders known for their coordination with the Israeli occupation to the Central Committee. 'Did this happen accidentally?'

maandag 17 augustus 2009

Winner and looser: in the middle Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who was unanimously elected as leader. To the right Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa) who lost his seat on the Central Committee.

It is with some amazement that I have read the many positive descriptions that western observers gave of the recent Fatah Congres that from the 4th August on was held in Bethlehem.
Almost generally it was called a 'new start', the 'old guard' made way for 'new faces', Fatah came out 'stronger' and would now be more able to deal with Hamas and to continue with the peace process.
I must say that I don't share that kind of optimism. I have waited a few days to think it over (the luxury of a blogger who does not have to deal with deadlines anymore) but in the end I am really convinced that Fatah, once the strongest factor in Palestinian politics has been weakened considerably, maybe even to the point that it is going to split in various splinters or vanish altogether. And worse yet: there is even room for the suspicion that one faction is taking over Fatah, a faction that is no less undemocratic than the regimes in Egypt or Jordan and that is prepared to make a deal with Israel on terms that fall short of an independent, viable state.
Why do I think so?
There are various reasons. First of all: this was the first Fatah congress since 1989. That last time Arafat was still around, and so were several other historic leaders, like Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf) and Khaled al Hassan (although the Israeli's had succeeded in murdering Abu Jihad (Khalil al Wazzir) earlier that year). Fatah was more or less in a winning mood: Israel seemed to have lost its upper hand because of the first intifada.
Now, 20 years on, the difference is huge. The great leaders are no more, the Oslo agreements of 1993 brought many changes but not a state an certainly no improvement of the conditions of living, the hopes of 1989 have faded. An endless 'peace process' that never brought any results, has undermined the credibility - and even legitimacy - of Fatah to the point that it lost the elections in 2006 to Hamas. And during all those years Fatah was so divided about the strategy it ought to follow, that it never succeeded in convening a congress.
But things all of a sudden changed this year. How come? What happened? The journalist Bilal al-Hassan, a younger brother of the Fatah-leaders Hani and Khaled al-Hassan but himself not a member of Fatah, gave a damning picture in As Sharq al-Awsat of 19 July (partly translated by Toufic Haddad here). Al-Hassan described how the preparatory committee was quarreling about the place of the venue - inside or outside the occupied territories, Amman or Bethlehem, with many in favour of an outside congres - and how Abu Mazen then unilaterally disbanded the committee, summoned a number of Fatah-cadres from the Westbank to his office in Ramallah and then and there decided that the place of venue would be Bethlehem, which documents would be discussed and which number of Fatah-members would be invited as delegates. Abu Mazen's move, says Al-Hassan, had of course huge consequences for the question who would attend. Opponents of the peace proces would either not be welcome, because Israel wouldn't let them in, or would be dependent on a temporary laisser passer, for which Abu Mazen had to apply to the Israeli government. In this way the Palestinian president had a decisive say in who would attend and what would be discussed. Al-Hassan did not hesitate to call it 'a coup within Fatah'.

That was one thing. And yes, Abu Mazen's move caused a split. Farouq Qaddoumi (photo), the last of the historical leaders although one who has always been operating at the sidelines,revived an old story and told a press conference in Amman that Abu Mazen together with Mohammed Dahlan had plotted with Ariel Sharon in order to poison Arafat. Also Mohammed Jihad, a fierce opponent of holding the meeting in Bethlehem who in the end appeared not to have been invited, anounced the birth of a new Fatah: Fatah Awakening. What will come from it remains to be seen.
But more important: the week long conference itself was characterized by a total lack of political reports. There were no clarifications of mistakes in the past, no analyses of why the peace process had failed sofar, nor why Hamas beat Fatah at the elections. There was not even a clear cut strategy for the future. When asked by the delegates to clarify the absence of any of such papers, Abu Mazen suggested that his long (46 pages) and rather dull opening speech should be considered as such. It seems rather questionable that this lack of even the slightest traces of the revolutionary spirit from the past that used to be Fatah's hallmark, can convince the Westbank people in the streets that the movement has been 'revitalized' and is an attractive party to cast their votes for in any elections if there ever would be one.

Next on the program in Bethlehem was the selection of the 23 men strong Central Council, 18 of them by direct vote, the rest by appointment by the leader. First the leader himself, Abu Mazen, was appointed by acclamation. No surprises there. But for the rest there were some: Old hands from Arafats time, like Intissar al Wazir (widow of Abu Jihad), Nasser Youssef, Hakam Balawi, Hani al-Hassan (and Farouq Qaddoumi for that matter) lost their places at the CC. The same happened to Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa), erstwhile prime-minister and chief negotiater with the Israelis. In their On top: Marwan Barghouti, down left: Jibril Rajoub, right: Mohamed Dahlan.

place people like Jibril Rajoub, Mohammed Dahlan, Tawfiq al-Tirawi and Hussein al-Sheikh were elected, all of them connected with the security apparatus of the Palestinian Authority: Rajoub was the former security chief on the Westbank, Dahlan his colleague in Gaza (he was responsible for the American sponsored attempt in 2007 to overthrow Hamas which backfired and caused Fatah to be kicked out of Gaza). Al-Sheikh and Tirawi have been high ranking offcials in the intelligence apparatus. All of them have connections with the 'overhaul' of the security apparatus and the civil service of the PA, which is being executed under supervision of the Americans (and in cooperation with the Israeli's). (Read my earlier article about general Dayton,here). All of them are against a reconciliation with Hamas. So are some other newly elected CC-members,like Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of Fatah's faction in parliament, or Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Abu Mazens bureau chief (who at the very last minute was added to the list of newly elected CC-members after a dubious recount of the votes). Some people would argue that the election of the very popular younger Westbank leader Marwan Barghouti, who is stongly in favour of reconciliation, will serve as a counterweight. But that remains to be seen. Barghouti's position looks rather isolated among the rest of the CC. And that is also to be taken literally: he's serving six life sentences in an Israeli jail.Security forces in the new 'Dayton-style' as seen here provided the right atmosphere during the conference in Bethlehem.

The voting for the CC was strongly criticised from two sides. The 11-man strong Fatah-leadership of Gaza resigned collectively because they did not get enough people on the CC and called the voting procedure unfair (Gaza got only Nabil Shaath and Mohamed Dahlan on the CC). The Gazans had been handicapped from the beginning, because Hamas did not let them go. The 400 man strong delegation did not get permission to leave, said Hamas, because Fatah refused to free the plm. 460 Hamas sympathizers in Palestinian jails in the Westbank. Consequently the Gazans had to cast their votes per telephone.
The other criticism came from Ahmed Qurei, who told the paper Al-Quds al-Arabi that the way the voting had been handled was worse than it had been in Iran, with several people voting more than once and general confusion about procedures. According to him the results had been pre-cooked. He hinted that this might have something to do with what only a few insiders knew: 'The current stage is hard and difficult and there were offers for a temporary state and a solution without the Right of Return and without Jerusalem and it seems there were people in the Palestinian arena who were ready to accept those offers,' he said. Also he put a big question mark on the election of four PA security leaders known for their coordination with the Israeli occupation to the Central Committee. 'Did this happen accidentally?' Qurei added that he had been against holding a conference in Palestine under occupation, but had nevertheless, after it so had been decided, tried to make the best of it. But one group had 'turned things upside down, because it wanted something against the will of the majority. Ít seems they ware searching for Yes-men'.

And then, at last, at the closing of the conference, did the tiger show some of its former teeth? Did the renewed Fatah demand an end to the closure of Gaza, an investigation into the conduct of the Israeli army during the operation Cast Lead? An end to the checkpoints, the freeing of the prisoners? Nothing of the kind. The political program calls for a continuation of the peace process, although not before Israel calls a building freeze. It reiterated that Fatah wants a state within the pre- 1967 borders, with East-Jerusalem as its capital, and it repeats the right of return and the right of armed resistance to the occupation. Words, words, words. The question is: how many people will be convinced? The new Fatah-leadership prays at the tombe of Yasser Arafat at the end of the Fatah conference. Would Abu Amar have been pleased with the results?

zondag 16 augustus 2009

The Palestinina Center for Human Rights published the following investigation of the shootout friday and saturday in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, where the imam of a mosque called for the birth of an Islamic Emirate, led by his group, the Jund Ansar Allah. It seems that the Jund Ansar Allah had earlier caused troubles by - among other things - attacking parties like weddings. It looks as if Hamas was provoked and had to act. The question - also asked by the PCHR - however is: why this was done in such a bloody way. Why send the Izzedin al Qassam Brigades to do the job? Didn't they have enough policemen?

The late sheikh Abdul Latif Moussa

28 Persons Killed and at Least 100 Others Wounded

On Friday afternoon, bloody confrontations erupted between the police and the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) on one side and members of an armed group known as "Soldiers of Allah's Supporters" on the other side. The clashes continued until Saturday morning, taking lives of at least 28 persons and wounding more than 100 others, some of whom sustained serious wounds. The dead include 3 civilians, 3 police officers, 3 members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades and 8 members of the armed group, including its leader, Sheikh 'Abdul Latif Mousa.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 13:00 on Friday, 14 August 2009, during the Friday Sermon, Sheikh 'Abdul Latif Mousa, the Imam of Ibn Taimiyah Mosque in al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah, declared the birth of an Islamic emirate and called for allegiance for him and his group, which he called "Soldiers of Allah's Supporters." Sheikh Mousa also criticized the Government in Gaza and threatened it with fighting if it attempts to storm and control the mosque.

The sermon was preceded by intensive deployment of members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades and police officers in the vicinity of the mosque. At the end of the prayer, the worshippers left the mosque quietly. However, dozens of members of the armed group stayed in the mosque until the afternoon prayer (approximately 16:30). Shortly after 17:00, the besieging forces ordered all those who were inside the mosque to surrender. Families of a number of those who were inside the mosque intervened and demanded their relatives to get out of the mosque. Some of them accepted the demand and got out of the mosque. Soon after, gunmen opened fire from inside the mosque at members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades and police officers. Consequently, a bloody confrontation erupted between the two sides, which continued until 06:00 on Saturday. At least 28 persons have been killed, including 5 ones who have not been identified so far. The dead include 3 civilians, 3 police officers, 3 members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades and 8 members of the armed group, including its leader, Sheikh 'Abdul Latif Mousa. At least 100 others have been wounded.

Members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades and police officers controlled the mosque and its vicinity. Rescue operation are still ongoing under rubbles of two houses adjacent to the mosque, which belong to Sheikh Mousa and the Lafi family, where Shiekh Mousa's body was found.

The police arrested at least 100 persons who are suspected to be members of the armed group, including some of the wounded persons. The police closed the area and the vicinity of the main hospital in the town and denied access of journalists.

At approximately 11:00 on Saturday, the web site of the Ministry of Interior in Gaza quoted Eihab al-Ghussain, Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, as saying: "Palestinian security services have concluded a security operation in Rafah against an expiatory group headed by 'Abdul Latif Mousa, who threatened the legitimate government in Gaza, declared secession and described Hamas as a secular movement that must be fought and killed." Al-Ghussain accused members of the group of "having deviant ideologies, of expiating the population of Gaza and of carrying out several attacks against wedding parties and cafés."

(to a killer:) If you'd contemplated the victim's faceand thought, you would have remembered your mother in the gaschamber, you would have liberated yourself from the rifle's wisdomand changed your mind: this isn't how identity is reclaimed.
en:

You standing at the doorsteps, enterand drink Arabic coffee with us(you might sense you're human like us)you standing at the doorsteps of houses,get out of our mornings,we need reassurance that weare human like you!
En dit is het begin van A State of Siege:

Here, where the hills slope before the sunset and the chasm of timenear gardens whose shades have been cast asidewe do what prisoners dowe do what the jobless dowe sow hope

In a land where the dawn searswe have become more doltishand we stare at the moments of victorythere is no starry night in our nights of explosionsour enemies stay up late, they switch on the lightsin the intense darkness of this tunnel

Here after the poems of Job, we wait no more

This siege will persist until we teach our enemiesmodels of our finest poetry

A once-in-a-lifetime experience:
THE ULTIMATE MISSION TO ISRAEL
Monday, October 26 – Monday, November 2, 2009
Experience a dynamic and intensive eight day exploration of Israel’s struggle for survival and security in the Middle East today: "a military, humanitarian, historical, judicial, religious, and political reality check."

Mission Highlights

* Briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet.
* Briefing by officers in the IDF Intelligence and Operations branches.
* Inside tour of the IAF unit who carries out targeted killings.
* Live exhibition of penetration raids in Arab territory.
* Observe a trial of Hamas terrorists in an IDF military court.
* First hand tours of the Lebanese front-line military positions and the Gaza border check-points.
* Inside tour of the controversial Security Fence and secret intelligence bases.
* Meeting Israel's Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence.
* Briefing by Israel's war heros who saved the country.
* Meetings with senior Cabinet Ministers and other key policymakers.
* Small airplane tour of the Galilee, Jeep rides in the Golan heights, water activities on Lake Kinneret, a cook-out barbecue and a Shabbat enjoying the rich religious and historic wonders of Jerusalem's Old City.

A Letter to the Israeli PeopleI am appealing to you as an Israeli citizen:When your government denied my family our rights in the past, many ordinary Israelis did not look away. Instead, they stood with us. They showed us that Israelis are able to look past our differences and stand up for what is right.I call on the Israeli people once again to help. Early on Sunday August 2nd, more than 200 armed police smashed our windows, barged into our house and threw us out. They said we were living in the house illegally because Jews owned the land upon which our homes were built- over a hundred years ago. But, immediately after we were forced out, extremist settlers took over and occupied our home. They are still there now. My wife, children and I have spent the past seven days and nights in the streets, and there is no end for us in sight. Overnight, we were made homeless. I hope you can help us seek the justice denied to us. Israel calls itself a democracy. If so, the government is answerable to you, the Israeli people.My family's situation is not an isolated case. Stories like ours are being played out all the time in Jerusalem and will continue. It is being perpetuated by the government of Israel in your name, in the name of the Israeli people, against UN resolutions and international law. Please, stand with us again in our time of need, and help my family and I and those like us, to get our homes back.We need your support. With each new day spent in the streets, our time is running out. Please stop the Israeli government from abusing us in Sheikh Jarrah in your name.Maher Hannoun,Sheikh Jarrah,Jerusalem

Monday 27 July 2009:A demonstration will be held outside the Darwish Hijazi home to protest the demolition of the home and the ethnic cleansing of occupied East Jerusalem.Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah, along with international and Israeli solidarity activists, will hold a demonstration outside the Darwish Hijazi home in Sheikh Jarrah. On Sunday, 26 July 2009, 7 international activists, 1 Israeli activist and 2 Palestinians were arrested outside the Palestinian home.Settlers had broken into the home and began to destroy the house from the inside. According to local residents, the Palestinian home owner had died a month ago, leaving no one inside the home to protect it. Around 12:30 pm, Israeli forces arrested a German national, an Australian national, a Scottish national, an Israeli and 2 Palestinians including former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Hatim Abdul Qader, when they tried to block settlers from entering the home.Religieuze kolonisten hebben onder politiebescherming met een bulldozer een muur opengebroken om een huis in Sheikh Jarrah over te nemen. Op de foto maken ze het gat provisorisch weer dicht.

After they were taken to the police station on Salah al-Din street, settlers were able to enter the home. According to witnesses at the scene, settlers were destroying the house from the inside.Around 3:30, Israeli forces arrested 2 American nationals and a British national, as they tried to enter the Palestinian home to stop the settlers from destroying it. They were also taken to the police station on Salah al-Din street.The 7 internationals and 1 Israeli activist are still in detention and will likely have court on the morning of Monday, 27 July 2009.

The case of Sheikh JarrahThe Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem was built by the UN and Jordanian government in 1956 to house Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. However, with the the start of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, following the 1967 war, settlers began claiming ownership of the land the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was build on.Stating that they had purchased the land from a previous Ottoman owner in the 1800s, settlers claimed ownership of the land. In 1972 settlers successfully registered this claim with the Israeli Land Registrar.The 28 families face eviction from their homes. In November 2008, the al-Kurd family was violently evicted from their home in Sheikh Jarrah. Two weeks thereafter, Mohammad al-Kurd died from a stress induced heart attack.Currently, the Hannoun and the al-Ghawi families face eviction from their Sheikh Jarrah homes. However, all 28 families are battling eviction in Israeli court.

The study, published recently in the journal Megamot by Prof. Sorel Cahan of Hebrew University's School of Education, supports the claims of institutionalized budgetary discrimination that Arab educators have long voiced. On Monday, when the ministry published town-by-town data on what percentage of high school students pass their matriculation exams, most Arab towns were once again at the bottom of the list. A rare exception was Fureidis, where 75.86 percent of students passed - the third highest rate in Israel.

Ordinary classroom hours are allotted to schools on a strictly per-student basis. But the special assistance budget, which totaled NIS 150 million last year, is by nature differential, as its purpose is to give extra assistance to schools with a large proportion of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The money goes toward tutoring, enrichment activities and more.

Over mij

This blogname was derived from a satiric Arabic novel by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby. In the ''The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimist'' he uses absurdism as a weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. I consider it to be an example for how events in Israel/{Palestine best can be approached.
The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. In a way that is also still my motto.
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. In 2018, I concluded the study 'Arabic language and culture' at the University of Amsterdam.
I started 'Abu Pessoptimist' in January 2009 out of anger about the onslaught of that month in Gaza. The other blog, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)